TU 710 Awarded Second Installment of $275,000 Grant

by Nebraska Environmental Trust

for Dry Spotted Tail Creek near Mitchell NE

April 2019 - Our chapter was awarded the second installment of $75,000 by the Nebraska Environmental Trust for the "Dry Spotted Tail Creek and Wetland Project" on land owned by Platte River Basin Environments (PRBE) a conservation land trust west of Mitchell. The Trust Board announced funding for the Project at its April 4 meeting in Lincoln. This project is one of 117 throughut the state funded by the NET in the current cycle. The chapter was awarded the first installment in the last grant cycle and are working with our partners including the Chasing Rainbows TU chapter, PRBE, Nebraska Game and Parks, Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, the Scottsbluff Boy Scouts to complete this $900,000 project.

Dry Spotted Tail Creek runs into the North Platte River just west of Mitchell. Highly channelized, it holds trout but not many can fight the strong current at the downstream end. The cooperating partners are working towards completion of a project to increase stream sinuosity and add structure, creating healthy trout habitat, raising the water table, and recharging wetlands. The finished project will create about ¾ mile of publicly accessible trout habitat, as well as habitat for waterfowl and migratory birds.

We expect to break ground in June, using heavy equipment to move materials and create a diversion structure. TU volunteers will then help plant streamside and in‐stream vegetation and will place rocks to create in‐stream structure. Be on the lookout for publicity and please consider joining us for what should be a fun and rewarding volunteer project.

Our chapter originally received received a grant of $5,000 through the Trout Unlimited national Embrace-A-Stream grant program in 2016. (See the full press release about that here.) We have used that grant as part of our match for this grant from the NET, along with other generous contributions from our partners.

About Nebraska TU

Nebraska's TU chapter, TU 710 is a growing force in the quest for cold water habitat preservation and restoration in our state. Currenty our chapter covers the whole state. We will soon spin off a sister chapter centered in the Nebraska Panhandle, to be known as the "Chasing Rainbows" chapter.The existing chapter has provided seed money and if all goes well that chapter should be up and running by this Summer. For more info see our page devoted to that chapter.

We hope to use this site to inform you about our past, present and especially future activities in support of our goals. Current activities include working with Nebraska Game and Parks on cold water habitat restoration, and on fishing education. Our members regularly volunteer to teach both children and adults to fish, and help them learn about fish and the larger ecosystem of which they are a part. We provide seed money and continuing support for the Trout in the Classroom curriculum at schools around the state. This program teaches young people about the importance of clean and healthy water while giving them hands on experience raising fish in a controlled environment. Our chapter provided materials and labor for habitat improvement projects at Verdigre Creek in 2013, and we hope to work again with Game and Parks on their planned cold water habitat program starting this summer. We have also embarked on a partnership with Project Healing Waters to make restorative fishing opportunities available to injured and disabled veterans. This project has been met with much enthusiasm and we expect it to grow rapidly.

TU represents our common interest in preserving an environment in which fish and fisheries can thrive. Our members come from a wide variety of backgrounds and have diverse views on many matters, but we all agree that our natural environment is worth protecting and that healthy fisheries are a common asset worthy of preservation.

You’ll find information about our upcoming events on our calendar. We’d love to meet you at one of them.